Thursday, March 13, 2008

Oh Sally Kern, you so crazy

So...I'm not the biggest fan of gossip/tabloid magazines and blogs BUT I do have this little ritual of catching up on Perezhilton.com a few nights a week, OK maybe a little bit more than that....ANYWAY I like Perez more than the other celebrity parasites out there because sometimes he will use his blog as a way to introduce upcoming musicians, promote charities, etc. Mainly, I like that he follows politics and national LGBT issues. I really dig that because so few mainstream media agencies really follow LGBT civil rights issues, and honestly, LGBT rights issues are not a matter of religious preferences or whatnot, they are a matter of American civil rights and people being treated like second class citizens (I'm not just talking marriage, I'm talking VIOLENCE here people). Well, last week Perez posted a video of Oklahoma legeslator Sally Kern saying some really hateful, and frankly unintelligent, things about how homosexuality is a bigger threat than terrorism, tolerance is bad, and something about 2 yr olds being taught about homosexuality in public schools.(?????) As of today, 1681 comments have been posted under that first video on Perez's blog, and reactions have been pretty mixed. Since the audio of her speech has leaked, she has refused to apologize for what she says on the grounds that she is a Christian and those are her beliefs. Free speech. Everyone is entitled to an opinion. My question is: Do we really want someone with disdain for a certain group of people representing and creating legislature that will affect this group of people? What if she said that African/Asian/Hispanic/White/Purple poka-dotted people were a bigger threat than terrorism? (which would be just as trivial/stupid/impossible to prove). Another misguided part to her speech that NOBODY (that I've seen at least) has grabbed onto is that she equated Islam with terrorism. Perez and Ellen and a slew of Youtubers are standing up to this rather misguided woman. I would defiantly like to see more of this civic engagement and I would love love love to see Sally Kern return Ellen's phone call.